Summary

About 66 per cent of law students at Strathmore University passed all subjects, while other universities had as low as 10 per cent of their students passing the examination that will enable the students to be admitted to the role of advocates.

Only 22 per cent of the students across the country passed the examination.

Out of more than 1,926 students who sat for the examination, only 445 passed.

Strathmore records top performance in law exams

Strathmore University School of Law recorded the best performance in last year’s November Bar examinations that were administered by the Council of Legal Education.

About 66 per cent of law students at the university passed all subjects, while other universities had as low as 10 per cent of their students passing the examination that will enable the students to be admitted to the role of advocates.

According to details of the results released by CLE Chief executive W. Kulundu-Bitonye, only 22 per cent of the students across the country passed the examination.

Out of more than 1,926 students who sat for the examination, only 445 passed.

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Legal writing and drafting had 50 per cent fail and 50 per cent pass while commercial transactions had 51.5 per cent pass and 48.5 per cent fail. Trial advocacy recorded the highest pass at 96 per cent.

The results also show that 297 students passed their resit examinations translating to 21 per cent. In this category, commercial transactions had the highest number of resits at 964 yet it’s only 24 who passed while 76 per cent failed.

For 454 students who repeated the exams in legal writing and drafting, 78.5 per cent failed while 21.5 per cent passed.

Legal practice management had 149 students resitting for the paper, and only 11 per cent passing.

“If we look at the performance per subject, Strathmore had a 92 per cent success rate. Fifty students did a total of 450 subjects (50 students times 9 subjects). Out of these, 416 subjects were passed, which means that those Strathmore students who did not pass, failed only one subject (with a few exceptions),” said Dr Luis G Franceschi, the Dean of the School at the University.

A report by a taskforce on legal sector reforms chaired by lawyer Fred Ojiambo revealed that law students graduating from public universities had a higher chance of failing Bar Examinations compared to those studying in private institutions.

The study conducted between 2009 and 2016 indicates more students from three top public universities failed to make it through the Kenya School of Law (KSL) examinations than those from other institutions offering law degrees.

The report indicated that out of 16,086 students who sat for the bar examinations, only 7,530 passed translating into a 53 per cent failure.